


Closeknit

by Circelline



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Developing Friendships, F/M, Knitting, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Post-Canon, kind of fluff, like a knitting club?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-08-27 16:06:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8407993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Circelline/pseuds/Circelline
Summary: After Eridan is resurrected in the new world, he learns that:1.) His scarf is missing,2.) Said scarf is very difficult to alchemize, and3.) Rose Lalonde is offering knitting lessons.But when everyone around you is useful, busy, and not willing to interact with you, really, what is there to lose?~~~~~I should've probably chosen something less ambitious for a first fanfic, like a one-shot, but that's not how I roll... At least that's what I'm telling myself.





	1. Cast On

Eridan Ampora, who was irritated, stumbling slightly, and dropping a towering pile of blue yarn on a nearby table, grumbled, “I brought you somthin.”

“Firstly, most people start with a greeting of some sorts, so they don’t come across as rude or intrusive,” Rose, who was currently lying down on her sofa, didn’t look up from her book, “Speaking of intrusive, secondly, most people knock or ring a doorbell before they enter people’s homes. And finally, and definitely the most pressing of the three, how and why did you decide to spend your first six hours being alive again acquiring an impressive stack of navy and light blue yarn?”

“I wasn’t tryin to fuckin make yarn okay? I’vve been standin at the stupid alchemiter for hours tryin to make my scarf and this is all I got,” he huffed, “And I figured you could use it for your knitting or somethin.”

She raised an eyebrow half-heartedly, “What made you think I knit?”

Eridan returned, almost too solemnly, “Evveryone and evverythin invvolvved wwith Horrorterrors knowws howw to knit. Honestly I can’t _believve_ I’m tellin you this.”

He watched Rose turn her gaze away from him to eye the gargantuan pile of half-tangled yarn, which was slightly spilling off the edge in fuzzy vines. “I don’t think that’s any less than thirty pounds. How many times did you try making your scarf with this _exact_ result of failure?”

“Like I said, I wwas at it for hours, I don’t exactly remember,” Eridan shrugged, “That’s not the point. Wwhat I’m sayin is that you can probably use it. You knoww, conservving resources and such.”

“While I appreciate the gesture, despite not being an inherently friendly one, I hope you realize that I don’t even possess that much yarn of different colors, much less just blue. Not to mention that blue isn’t a color I use often in my humble craft.”

“Well if you can think of another usage for this stuff that I’m clearly unawware of, let me knoww, “ Eridan’s voice was tinged with a restrained annoyance, “WWorst part is, I still don’t havve a scarf, and I sure as fuck ain’t goin to try usin that machine again anytime soon.”

Rose slowly sat up and set her book aside. Eridan couldn’t read the cover from his vantage point, since she was across the room, but it looked like it was either high literature or the sort of overly melodramatic poetry that angsty teenagers adore.  It didn’t really matter to him, it was probably pretentious anyway.

“Listen…Eridan is it?” She didn’t check Eridan for confirmation, “Eridan, bringing me an excess of raw material isn’t the appropriate payment for me knitting you a scarf, even if I was willing to do so in the first place.”

“Are you _fuckin_ kidding me? All I’m trying to do is givve you something you might use, you inconsiderate-” he opened his mouth to continue, but then his face shifted, “Actually no you’re right, it did sound like I wwas askin for a shitty favvor.”

Rose walked across the room with her book, setting it on an odd-looking, pitch-black structure she seemed to use as a bookshelf, “I appreciate your concession, but my statement still holds true.”

Eridan shifted on his feet, looking around the human’s hive before gesturing the mountain of fuzzy blue coils, “So should I leavve all a this with you, because I can’t tell if you actually wwant it or not.”

“Truth be told, I’m not sure myself,” Rose shrugged, but then something lit up in her eyes briefly, “Actually, I have a proposition for you. Would you be interested in knitting lessons, run by yours truly? With all this yarn, you can make yourself a new scarf tenfold.”

Eridan stared at Rose, trying to detect even a single iota of insincerity in her face. You never know with humans, them and their stupid dishonest ways of communicating. Definitely the worst habit the others picked up from them.

“So wwhat you’re tellin me,” Eridan still studied her face for any betrayal of sinister intentions, “Is that you’re unwwillin to wwaste your time by yourself to make me a scarf, but instead wwant to wwaste evven _more_ time teachin me, someone you don’t particularly like, howw to knit?”

Rose almost smiled, which Eridan found so unnerving he almost looked away, “Don’t flatter yourself so much. Roxy already asked me for lessons a few days ago, and I don’t see any potential harm in you coming in as well.”

Roxy? Was that a human? Must be, but Eridan couldn’t remember where he’d heard that name before. Maybe it’s one from the other batch of humans?

“She’s my ectobiological mother,” Eridan wasn’t sure if Rose anticipated him not knowing or saw the look on his face, “Among other things. Luckily for you, our first session starts tomorrow at noon. That should give you an approximated thirteen hours to gather your bearings and decide whether you’re ready to be seduced by the gentle art of knotting strings together.”

“Listen, I don’t really wwant to barge the fuck into your mother-grub bonding time,” Eridan could picture it – Rose and Roxy busy being together while he was left alone with his mountain of yarn, “You guys should just do your owwn thing yourselvves.”

“Once again, you have roughly half a day to eventually reach a decision,” Rose wrapped her arms around the large pile of spun wool, “In the meantime, I suppose I can add this to my collection. Winding it into proper skeins should take a long time, though.”

Eridan watched Rose walk to the other side of the room, past a door, and into a dark room, “Wwell, if that’s it I’m goin back to my hivve.”

Rose’s voice was slightly muffled as she called from the other room, “Whatever you do, please cease your futile attempts at alchemizing your scarf. There’s enough yarn as it is already.”

“Yeah, sure,” Eridan pressed a button near the front door, and the metal doors slid open to allow him outside in to the cool night air. So much for trying to be courteous.

Eridan had no idea how long it has been since they won the game, but at some point he was dead and then at another point he was suddenly lying on his back and blinking up to a Karkat and a Rose. The former quickly updated him on what happened as Eridan climbed out of some sort of odd machine. There’s a new planet now called Earth C, one where the trolls and humans live together, and they’ve been bringing back the dead members of their session. Of course, Eridan was the last one to be brought back, but he couldn’t really blame them. He didn’t exactly leave the land of the living on the best terms. Karkat then had showed him his new hive, which was oddly cylindrically shaped but thankfully not near any sort of civilization, and told Eridan that’d he occasionally stop by to “check on him.” Whatever that means.

“Listen, Kar, uh… howw many knoww about me comin back to life?” Eridan had asked him, still standing outside the strange metal hive.

“Not really anyone besides me and Lalonde. I mean, it’s not the sort of thing I just run around and fucking announce to the masses, you blathering incompetent nookstain,” his voice, while still loud, was not typical Karkat levels of loud. The violet-blood should’ve been thankful, but there was a softened edge to his words that had made Eridan uncomfortable.

“No, I mean, can you not tell anyone, yet?”

Karkat shrugged, trying to be as casual as possible, “Sure, I don’t give a fuck. Just don’t scare the everloving shit out of anyone when you do.”

After studying the rather bare hive, which only contained a desk, a chair, a husktop, and a recoopercoon, Eridan decided that a trip to the alchemiters was necessary. It took him a while to realize that his scarf was missing, which was odd, because he was positive he died with it. He even had the scarf when he was Erisolsprite. Then why didn’t he wake up with it?

Right. The knitting schoolfeeding Lalonde was offering. Eridan was still baffled that she even offered. They weren’t exactly friends after all. For that matter, why did Karkat bring _her_ of all people to be present when he was revived? Honestly, who even knows with humans.

Against Rose’s advice, Eridan found himself strolling near the alchemiters again, and was about to press the button that activates the door when he heard the loud cackle of one of the trolls. Eridan froze.

“Honestly, TZ, I think thith ith a pretty shitty idea.”

“Shut up. It’s _amazing._ ”

Eridan could feel his bloodpusher thumping violently in his increasingly tightening chest, but he remained still. He felt as if his joints were glued together with cement. How fast did they get here? Eridan had _just left_ the alchemiters roughly ten minutes ago. Rose’s hive isn’t even that far away. And he had spent the whole latter half of the day in there with no interruptions. _Why are they here?_

“Not everything hath to be about Thalemateth and-,”

A loud blast was heard from inside, and that noise snapped Eridan out of his stupor. He had to run.

Eridan could barely process the half-cleared forests around him. In his panicked state he momentarily forgot where his new hive was, but soon he realized he was sprinting down a familiar path. The violet-blooded troll hoped that the sound of grass and gravel crunching underneath his shoes wasn’t too loud, but by the time he returned to the front of his hive, Eridan assessed that he was probably in the clear. He weakly pressed his fist against the light blue button and stumbled inside.

He definitely didn’t need to see any trolls right now. More importantly, they didn’t need to see him.

Panting, Eridan slumped into his desk chair. Not as comfortable as the high-backed, cushy one he used to have in his old hive, but it did swivel nicely.

Spending time in the afterlife and as half of a self-loathing sprite gave a lot of time for Eridan to think about… _that_. The whole “snapping and murdering several trolls” business on the meteor. Eridan already knew that most of the trolls didn’t exactly enjoy his company, but now that he seriously messed up, there was absolutely no way he could recover from that.

And quite frankly, Eridan didn’t blame them.

He slid back even farther in his chair and groaned. There was honestly nothing for him to do. While Eridan was secretly thankful that every other inhabitant on the new planet had at least one job that kept them busy, realizing that he was essentially worthless on the new planet was definitely a negative. Plus, the internet on his husktop wasn’t working properly and he felt like he would die of boredom. Maybe this whole knitting business would be some way to be productive. Maybe this was the chance he needed to be useful somehow, and maybe with that, he might be redeemed.

“It’s not like knittin is entirely useful though,” Eridan muttered to himself.

But really, he had nothing better to do.


	2. Gauge

Eridan was starting to have some regrets.

Here he was, standing in broad daylight in front of Rose’s hive again. Luckily the sun that the new world comes with isn’t scorching hot like the one Alternia had, but it still had the distinctly annoying property of making him very visible. After multiple scans of his surroundings, Eridan could only see the black and white carapacians busy cutting down trees or building more metal cylinders. Luckily for him, they usually gave Eridan no more than a curious glance and then continue with whatever they were doing.

Rose was probably not serious about the lessons. If she was, wouldn’t she have told him what to bring? Or what she was going to actually teach? This was definitely a bad idea. He should go home, before someone finds him and tells all the other trolls before he proves himself as a productive citizen and not a crazed murderer, then he really _will_ be the most worthless thing on this planet-

Eridan was about to turn around and head for his hive when he heard a voice coming from inside. Someone who was definitely not Rose asked, “So, uh, are we going to start knitting or what?”

“As soon as that previously discussed troll arrives, we’ll begin,” Rose’s voice was less audible than the other one, and Eridan had to lean in closer to understand her.

“Oh yeah, it’s still 11:57 I think, kid’s got time.” Silence.

Eridan suddenly felt guilt mixing in with the anxiety.  So they were waiting for _him_? Rose didn’t even plan these knitting lessons for him and yet he was the one holding them up. Part of him wanted to ditch and then send a note to Rose that he won’t be attending them anymore, but instead he tapped his knuckles on the metal door as confidently as he could.

He heard slightly rushed footsteps and the metal door slid open, revealing a neutral-looking Rose that then broke out into a faint smile.

“So Eridan, I’m glad you took my suggestions to heart and knocked,” She lowered her voice, “But next time, remember that eavesdropping is generally frowned upon as well.”

Eridan swallowed. Well fuck, she knew he was standing outside.

Behind her he saw another human sitting against the couch and next to the pile of blue yarn he brought in yesterday. A small portion of it was wrapped up rather sloppily beside her. She really did resemble Lalonde; same skin tone, same bizarrely light hair, but definitely… more pink? Pinker? Is that even a word?

This other human looked up at him, grinned, and jumped up, “Wait, you’re the troll I haven’t met yet, right?”

Eridan stepped inside unsurely, “I suppose so?”

She stepped forward and grabbed Eridan’s hand, then shook it up and down, “Hey I’m Roxy! You’re Eridan, right? Rose told me about you and I’m _legit_ super psyched to finally meet you!”

Why did she just grab him like that…? Eridan presumed this was some foreign greeting system that humans have. They sure are touchy to strangers, he supposed. This didn’t stop Eridan from getting slightly unnerved about the whole ordeal.

“The... pleasure’s all mine,” Eridan attempted his best to appear cordial, but he already knew that it was never a strong suit of his. Roxy didn’t seem to mind though.

“Well, now that everyone’s here,” Rose held out several sets of knitting needles, “I’ll let you borrow a pair of needles for me for now, and if you want you can alchemize your own later.”

The long, shiny needles were all various shades of black, gray, and dark purple. Typical Rose. Roxy grabbed the silver pair and Eridan decided to be predictable by grabbing a violet set of needles.

After they settled down on the floor in a roughly triangular shape and chosen their yarn colors, Rose took her own yarn, which was surprisingly white, and held it to chest level, “The first step in knitting is what we call _casting on_. First, we’re going to have to make a slip knot.”

Roxy held up her own garish salmon-hued yarn, “Like the band?”

“As in, make a double loop and pull one of the loops through,” Rose demonstrated. Eridan quickly followed suit.

“Oh, so it kinda looks like a noose,” Roxy was adjusting her loop to be a little smaller, “Is this too big?”

“It’s good for now,” Rose glanced over at Eridan’s blue knot before proceeding, “Next is inserting your needles in knitwise, so it crosses like such.”

 All throughout the lesson, Eridan put most of his concentration on imitating _exactly_ what Rose demonstrated, down to the last twitch. By the time Rose was teaching how to knit-stitch, he could feel a throbbing in his head from staring too intensely down at his needles.

“Eridan, while I appreciate how neat your handiwork is, you don’t need to make each stitch perfect,” Rose commented, “This is your first time knitting, therefore you have quite a bit of leeway on how even your stitches have to be. The point is to practice the motions, and if you keep going at a painstaking pace that lesson won’t be as effective.”

Eridan kept his head down, “Oh, um, sorry about that.”

“Aw, Eridan, why’re you apologizing? It’s not like you did anything wrong!” Roxy piped up, “Anyway, OMG _Rose_ , how’re you two adjusting to married life? I still can’t believe how much happened since last week! Not to mention, now that you and K-,”

“You dropped a stitch,” Rose cut her off sharply and a tad bit louder than she usually spoke.

“What?”

Rose gestured for Roxy to hand over the small rectangle of knitted material she had created so far, then pointed to a little loose coil a few rows down, “You see this? This means that you missed one of the loops. You should correct this as soon as it happens, because unraveling is rather tedious work.”

Eridan nervously checked his own blue rectangle and sure enough, everything was still neat and in place, though shorter than either Lalonde’s work. He definitely didn’t want to be the one called out for doing something so blatantly wrong.

“Oh shit, that was close,” Roxy chuckled, “So I just, open up all of these stitches and just fix it, then redo it again?”

Rose tilted her head slightly, “That’s generally how unraveling works.”

As Eridan reached the end of his row, he tried to pick up his pace in order to follow Rose’s instructions. She had basically said that his stitches were _too_ good, right? Did that mean that Eridan was naturally good at knitting? Was he destined to become some sort of professional scarf-maker?

If this was the only thing he had to fill his time with, Eridan decided that he might as well excel in it. He _had_ to be good at this. And if Eridan knew anything, the only way to assert yourself as the best in something is to beat anyone that’s in the same field as you. He snuck a glance at Roxy, who was trying to start small talk with Rose again. Her knots were not quite as uniform as Eridan’s were, but there’s no saying how quickly she’ll improve in the next few classes. Hell, it’s possible all the times Roxy was trying to initiate conversation with Rose was to simply brown-nose her and then win her favor.

That scum sucking ass kisser. Well, Eridan wasn’t going to be the one left behind while Roxy stole all the knitting glory. She could play her dirty tricks to try to get ahead, but Eridan’s a new troll now – he was going to beat his rival fair and square.

~~~~~

It soon became apparent to Eridan that Roxy was perhaps the worst rival that he’d ever had to interact with.

“Hey Rose, look, I accidentally knitted one of my hairs again!” She pulled out a light strand and held it up, “Wow, this one’s really long!”

Rose was clearly busy, obviously trying not to speed through her own project so she wouldn’t intimidate her students, but she managed a nod.

“You think it’s possible to make something knitted only from human hair though?” Roxy continued, “Not gonna lie, that’d be both pretty gross and pretty cool.”

It wasn’t so much Roxy was trying to brown-nose Rose and it was more like she was… just trying to be friendly? In any case, it was detrimental to her ability to knit. They were already on their fifth knitting lesson, yet over and over again she would drop stitches, make them too uneven to continue, or forget whether she was supposed to do a knit stitch or a purl stitch and mix them up. Since Rose couldn’t be there for the next meeting, they’d decided to make their usually one hour long sessions into a two hour long one to make up for lost time.

Technically Eridan was at the top of his class now, with Rose commenting often on how much he’s improving, but this victory didn’t give the satisfaction it was supposed to. Karkat had said a long time ago that humans don’t understand quadrants, but do they not even understand _competition_? Did Roxy not feel bad that she was awful at this?

“Listen, uh, Rose, these lessons are nice and all,” This was the first time Eridan initiated a conversation in their knitting lessons, “But wwhen can you teach me howw to make the scarf I used to havve?”

Roxy grinned during the latter half of Eridan’s sentence, but Rose only gave him a curious look, “Do you know what your scarf looked like?”

“It wwas… striped?”

Rose raised an eyebrow, “You’ve been to enough lessons to know that there’s more nuance to knitting than simply color patterns. Do you remember the stitches?”

The stitches? Eridan wracked his brains. What was the texture like? Why couldn’t he remember a stupid detail as easy as the texture of the scarf he wore daily?

“Fuck I can’t remember anything about the stitches,” Eridan rubbed his temples with one hand. When did he get this throbbing headache all of a sudden? They’ve been sitting and working for only an hour and a half, but Eridan felt like he’d been sitting there all day.

“I could go into very minute detail on how memory processing and recall works, at least in humans, but to put it in layman’s terms, it’s much more difficult to recall information that you were previously not trained to process,” Rose shrugged, “The best course at this point seems to be to just figure out what pattern you want your scarf to be in and just knit a new one.”

At this point, Eridan noticed that Roxy had entirely given up on knitting and instead made a pink loop of yarn around her hands. She kept twisting the string around her wrist and fingers until it made some sort of strange pattern he’d never seen before.

“Hey Rose, did you guys have cat’s cradle too? Back home I learned how to do it, but I never had anyone to really do it with me, so it just kind of sucked,” Roxy sighed, “Turns out it’s a little complicated for carapacians.”

“Yes, we had cat’s cradle too,” Rose responded, tersely and under her breath.

“I should just become an expert in it. It even has cat in the name, it’s pretty much destined for me,” Roxy beamed.

“ _Please_ Roxy, I’m trying to teach you how to knit,” Rose’s face was actually showing signs of exasperation, “You’re the one who asked for me to do these lessons in the first place, so could you at least show the tiniest iota of interest?”

Roxy’s face fell so painfully that even Eridan couldn’t ignore it. In a small voice, she murmured, “I was just taking a break.”

Rose looked away, then sighed and stood up, “It’s likely that we all need a good break. Maybe the two hour knitting session was not the best plan. I’ll… be right back.”

As Rose walked to another part of her hive, probably to the meal block, Roxy dropped her pink-entwined hands in her lap forlornly. Eridan couldn’t help thinking how miserable she looked. Stupid humans and their inability to appear decent and unaffected by minor letdowns.

“So, uh, wwhat was that thing you wwere talking about earlier?” Eridan set down his needles to appear casual.

Roxy looked up, slight confusion etched on her face, “What?”

He pointed to her hands, “That thing you did. Cat’s cradle? I’m assuming cat is meowwbeast, but wwhat the evverloving fuck is a cradle?”

“Oh, uh, it’s like a bed for bab- human grubs,” Roxy fixed her posture so she wasn’t completely slumped over.

Eridan shifted so that he was closer and facing her, “Showw me howw to do this flippin meowwbeast grub shit.”

He swore that Roxy’s eyes almost literally lit up, “OMG, okay so it’s super cool, so all you have to do is pinch this little X here and this little X _here_ \- actually, let me show you how to start it first.”

She quickly slid off the bubblegum-shaded string, grabbed Eridan’s wrists, and began looping his hands and fingers with soft wool. There she goes with the hand touching _again_. Humans clearly have no boundaries when it comes to this sort of thing, though to be fair, Eridan only had himself to blame this time. He supposed it wasn’t _bad_ , though, just… weird.

“Alright, so I grab this X and this X, twist it like this-,” Roxy demonstrated, “-And then bam! Look at this!”

She held up her hands, which had an entirely new design of twisted yarn, “Okay, now your turn!”

By the time Rose came back with glasses of water and snacks, they were on their fifth round, though Eridan kept insisting to stop and switch around because he couldn’t decide which side of the game he liked better. Rose gave Eridan an odd look, one that he couldn’t quite understand, but proceeded to enter the room anyway. What there something wrong with this innocent string game for humans?

“Listen,” Rose sat down with the tray, “I shouldn’t have snapped at you-,”

“Oh no, really, it’s okay! S’all water under the bridge now,” Roxy gave a small laugh, “I mean, if that’s okay with you though.”

“This isn’t about _me_ though,” Rose stressed, “I’m trying to apologize to _you_.”

“And I’m saying it’s okay! Really!”

It was silent between them for a few minutes, the only noise coming from the crunching of crackers from Roxy. Rose was busy scrolling through her phone and Eridan sat there, not really knowing what to do. How did they manage to make an apology so awkward? Though to be fair, it’s not like Eridan wasn’t a part of a few awkward apologies himself before.

“I have to go meet with… some of the others in a few minutes,” Rose stood up, “Just remember that I’m unavailable tomorrow and I’ll see you after then.”

Roxy’s hive, or wherever she went after the knitting meetings, was in the opposite direction of where Eridan’s hive was; he usually didn’t mind because it meant that he wouldn’t have to come up with good small talk. He still waved a goodbye though as he scurried off away from town, hoping that no one would see him. He was surprised how lucky he’d been so far, but then again he’d been hanging out with a Light hero so maybe that was to be expected. Or maybe hanging out with a Void hero made it easier to hide?

 As he dropped his current knitting project on his desk, he noticed a small sliver of pink shining through the dark blue. He pulled out the little loop and realized that either he or Roxy left the yarn they were using for the cat coon game or whatever they were playing in his stuff.

Eridan laid the loop across his newly alchemized desk lamp, tied bow facing upwards. He supposed it was pretty much useless now, but he didn’t have any sort of waste receptacle and it almost felt like a shame to throw it out. It was perfectly good yarn, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping I can consistently update this weekly, or at least have it updated by the end of the weekend. More likely than not, I'm probably going to upload each Friday.
> 
> But damn, I forgot how difficult it is to translate a scene from your head into words. Also I forgot how often I choose to ignore the boring parts until I try to write them down... in general, I forgot how being a writer is like. Glad to be back into the wonderfully questionable world of fanfics.


	3. Tinking

The silence was killing Eridan.

In his old hive, the sounds of waves rolling onto the shore and the creaks of the ship’s boards were a comforting constant, always there to gently keep his mind from being too empty as he tried to come up with various landdweller-cleansing schemes. If he strained hard enough, Eridan thought he could hear distant carapace chatter every once in a while, but usually the only sound was the humming of his husktop and the ringing in his ears. All he could do now is knit and think. And he really hated to think nowadays.

It’s been over a week now, and Eridan still was just as unproductive as the day he was brought back. He’d already had some narrow misses with some of the trolls, even with some of the other humans, and he knew it was a matter of time before his revival would be common knowledge. Now that he had a whole day to himself without Rose and Roxy to distract him, he finally had to face reality. Eridan was running out of time.

There was a sudden knock at the door, except it was less of a knock and more of a pounding of furious knuckles upon thick metal. “Hey asshole, are you in there? This is the _third_ time I came here and if you aren’t here I will personally scour the place and lambaste your sorry putrid wastechute with my own two _fists_.”

Eridan opened the door to a disgruntled Karkat, who actually looked relieved as he groaned, “Fucking _finally_!”

“Hey Kar,” Eridan nervously glanced past Karkat and saw someone in the distance, “Wwhy don’t you come in?”

Karkat didn’t question it and barged past Eridan, “Listen I don’t have a lot of time. I said I’d be checking up on you and that’s what I’m doing now. Though clearly you’re doing something since you’ve been prancing around somewhere.”

“You probably came at around noon or something, cuz that’s the only time I ain’t here,” Eridan shrugged, “That’s when I meet up wwith Rose.”

“With Rose? What the fuck are you doing hanging out with _her_?”

“Knittin lessons.”

Karkat stared at him like he just sprouted another set of horns, “Knitting lessons.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re lying.”

Eridan grabbed his knitting needles and attached project from his desk, “Here’s my neww scarf so far, though I still think the pattern’s all fuckin wwrong and it kinda pisses me off the more I think about it. Not to mention that makin a striped scarf is a continuous pain in the ass.”

Karkat still looked incredulous but continued, “So if you’re going to knitting lessons with a bunch of assholes run by supreme leader asshole Lalonde, do I still have to keep you from everyone else like this planet’s biggest fucking secret? Can I just tell everyone you’re back?”

“Kar please don’t!” Eridan gasped, then responded slower, “It’s not like there’s a lot a us, it’s just me and Rox.”

“Roxy too? What the actual-,” Karkat stopped himself and sighed, “Never took her to be the knitting type.”

“Wwell she’s fuckin terrible,” Eridan chuckled slightly, “Honestly it’s a little painful to wwatch her flub around wwith the comprehension of a wwriggler. Makes you wwanna grab the needles and fix them yourself sometimes, you knoww?”

Karkat, who had sat down on Eridan’s swivel chair and casually observed the sparse decorations, turned to Eridan with renewed interest, “…Really?”

“Wwell, I mean…” Eridan then recounted all of the past few days with Karkat, pacing back and forth and relishing in describing every tiny detail. Man, it felt good to talk to Karkat again. It wasn’t gossip about who’s falling for who or anything, but it was an almost cathartic outpouring.

“Wait, she _gave_ you that?” Karkat pulled at the pink yarn loop on Eridan’s lamp.

Eridan rolled his eyes, “More like I found it in my stuff. Wwhy the fuck wwould she givve something stupid like that to me?”

“Gee, I don’t know, why would _anyone_ give you a token of a good, bloodpusher-warming memory that indicates the start of your budding relationship?” Karkat snapped back.

“Our ‘buddin relationship’?” Eridan echoed, “Kar I don’t even knoww wwhat you’re talkin about sometimes.”

“Never mind, you’re honestly the densest piece of slobbering hoofbeast shit in existence,” Karkat stood up and headed towards the door, “Are these knitting things daily or what?”

“Uh… yeah? Except for today a course.”

Karkat stood in the doorway, “So you’re back by 3, right?”

“I guess?”

“Good, because you better be here at that time every day from now on,” Karkat pressed the button that made the metal door slide open.

Eridan raised an eyebrow, “Wwait, wweren’t you suppose to quote ‘check up on me’ endquote once a wweek?”

“Uh, well, yeah,” Karkat fumbled, “Apparently you… need more attention than I originally thought. Anyway, see you tomorrow dipshit. And make sure you remember every single thing that happens between you and the other Lalonde.”

It was only five minutes after Karkat left that Eridan realized he should’ve asked his old friend if there was any work for him to do. Then again, he reasoned, it’s hard to be an active member of a smaller community when you have an overwhelming fear of being seen by others. However, Eridan did know someone else that could help him find some sort of menial work that can build up his reputation as a not-bloodthirsty, not-genocidal, perfectly good person. Maybe if other people believed it enough, it might actually happen.

~~~~~

While Eridan was thankful it was dark while he walked towards town, he sincerely hoped that everyone he knew was having some sort of big, very distracting party and thus wouldn’t be here.

Well, everyone except for Roxy of course.

When he had asked the Lalondes about whether they could find him work to do, Rose had looked down in thought and asked, “What sort of employment do you have in mind? I suppose I could think of a few open positions.”

Eridan was busy knitting twice and purling once, “I mean, it could be anythin, really. Just ah… maybe something wwhere no one has to knoww I’m there?”

“Well that disqualifies nearly every single opportunity I can think of,” Rose sighed, “Most of the ones I can think of are fairly social activities.”

“Hey Eridan, so are you any good at tech stuff? That’s what I mostly do nowadays,” Roxy offered, “ _And_ you can just hide behind a computer so no one knows it’s you!”

“I’m not exceptionally good at computers though,” Eridan frowned.

“Don’t worry, I can _totally_ teach you a bunch of stuff!” Roxy almost dropped another stitch out of excitement, “And if you come in after hours, no one’s gonna be there! It’s perfect!”

“Wwait, really? Are you serious?” Eridan had tried very hard to contain his excitement, “Oh wwoww, uh, thanks a ton Rox.”

She beamed, “No sweat. I’ll just let you know what happens and tell you when to come.”

And now here he was, waiting again for Roxy to show up. If only she’d hurry-

“ _Hey Eri!_ ”

Eridan jumped back and hit the wall behind him, bloodpusher pumping and gasping for breath. Roxy giggled a little before looking up at Eridan with concern.

“Are you okay? I didn’t want to actually scare you,” Roxy concernedly put a hand on Eridan’s shoulder. He was too shaken to even notice at first.

“Just… let’s just go inside and please nevver do that again,” Eridan took a deep breath, “Is it empty?”

“Just you, me, and maybe some carapaces that probably won’t notice you,” Roxy typed in a code to open the door, “Don’t worry, no one’s gonna be here. We’re gonna do this all secret agent-like with my l33t hacking skills.”

Sure enough, inside the formidable looking building were only half-lit hallways and rooms full of glowing computers. While Eridan was still a little on edge, and the atmosphere was slightly eerie, Roxy’s incessant chatter was strangely comforting. After all, no one was here, so what could possibly happen?

“…and basically this is where me and some of the other tr- some other people work!” Roxy gestured one of the rooms, “We’re working on a few things, like expanding the bandwidth of the planet’s wifi and trying to fix a few bugs, stuff like that.”

“Yeah, this looks more like Sol’s type a thing,” Eridan glanced about the room, “Wish I could remember the coding shit he kneww back when we were a sprite. Wwould help me out a ton noww.”

Roxy released a breath of relief, “Man, I’m so glad you’re not super sensitive to taking about the trolls cuz I was so close to mentioning them even though Rose told me not- _fuck_ _you weren’t supposed to know that._ ”

“Wwait, Rose did wwhat?” Eridan looked at Roxy with surprise, the latter who looked like she swallowed a half-dead squeakbeast. He’d never expected Rose to even consider his feelings about things like that, “I mean, yeah I can understand wwhy and to be pretty fuckin real I don’t wwanna even think about some a the other trolls, but Sol can fuck himself for all I care.”

“Exactly what he said about you, so I guess that’s fair,” Roxy grinned, “Wow, you two must really hate each other.”

Eridan looked away, “It’s more like evveryone hates me, but Sol just has more reason to do so.”

“Aww Eri, don’t be like that.”

He rolled his eyes, “Ugh, don’t call me that, it’s so… saccharine.”

Roxy furrowed her brow, “What, you _don’t_ want me to call you Eri? But you call me Rox!”

Eridan crossed his arms, “I shorten evveryone’s name, don’t think it’s special or anything.”

“Whatever, I’m still calling you that,” She playfully punched him in the shoulder. Eridan thought she would’ve been a bit more offended than she was, but then again it was Roxy.

“Anyway, _Eri dearest_ , why exactly does everyone hate you, or whatever because I think that’s totally a lie,” Roxy already had her legs resting on the table with all the computers. Eridan decided that he might as well sit down at one of the computers next to hers.

“Wwell let’s see, cuz it’s a long list,” Eridan kept his voice at a measured nonchalant tone, “Besides being generally an unpleasant person, besides being unable to take my moirail leavving me for a shithead like Sol, besides tryin to get into a quadrant wwith anythin that movved, there wwas that one time I killed a bunch of my friends and destroyed the matriorb.”

Roxy sat up, “Wait, holy fuck, _you_ were the one who destroyed the matriorb?”

Eridan was confused, “Howw do you knoww wwhat that evven is?”

Roxy huffed, “Oh yeah, the fucking Condense herself made me use my Void-y powers to make a new one. It fucking sucked, she kidnapped me and everything over it.”

Of course. Of _course_. Eridan had _one person_ who thought he was tolerable and he completely ruined it before he even met her. Serves him right, he supposed. He didn’t deserve anyone’s mercy, did he? He made Roxy mad at him. _Roxy_. How did he even do that? Because he’s Eridan Ampora, master of being the worst scum that ever came out of the ocean. He could feel the room spin a little, but he was luckily sitting down already.

“I… Fuck, I can’t believve that I fuckin did that to you wwithout even knowing!” Eridan slammed his fist on the table, then rubbed his temples, “Sorry, that wwas, I mean I shouldn’t lose my temper anymore, that’s wwhat got me into trouble in the first place.”

“Hey it’s fine, don’t worry about me,” why was Roxy being nice to him? “Besides, it’s not you, it’s the Batterwitch, and she’s dead now so I don’t care anymore. But hot damn, you’ve been through a lot of stuff, more than I thought.”

“Yeah, but I died wwhen I wwas 6 swweeps old so barely anything,” Eridan countered, “Wwhat about the rest a you wwho livved out all the wway to the end?”

“Listen Eri, look at me,” Roxy actually waited until Eridan turned to face her very somber expression, “The only reason I or anyone else got through everything is because we had each other. We were friends, we worked together, all that good stuff. It’s so much harder to go alone. And I know you’re scared of everyone but listen, I’m always here for you and I’m sure Rose is too.”

Eridan felt an odd warmth in his chest that he hadn’t felt in a long time, but he only responded by looking away and muttering a, “Um, thanks Rox.”

They sat there for a few minutes, Eridan paying very close to attention to some of the blinking lights coming from the ceiling and Roxy staring at… something, he couldn’t exactly tell.  As he was sitting there, he thought he heard the sound of footsteps.

“Wwait, Rox, do you hear that?” Eridan jumped to his feet.

“Relax, it’s probably just one of the carapaces,” Roxy assured him, “They come by every once in a while as a sort of security measure.”

Suddenly the door opened and a light was switched on. As Eridan tried to adjust to the now very bright lights, he heard a distantly familiar voice gasp, “What the devilfucking dickens?”

“Wait, Jake, what the – why are _you_ here?” Roxy rubbed her eyes, “Also, next time please warn someone when you’re going to turn the lights on like that.”

“I was just here, minding my own business, literally because I’m checking on my own business after hours,” The slightly disgruntled newcomer responded, “In any case, I think the better question to ask is why are you here with… wait.”

Oh no, Jake recognized him. Of all the humans, Eridan was hoping he wouldn’t have to see Jake again.

“ _You’re the other half of Mr. Erisolsprite!_ ” Jake grabbed Eridan’s hand like Roxy did a long time ago, thus confirming that this was some sort of wretched human etiquette, “Good gravy, I’ve been looking forward to the day we meet for a very long time!”

“His name’s Eridan, Jake,” Roxy rolled her eyes, “Anyway, oh yeah, forgot you were his sprite for a while!”

“I get the nagging feeling that Sollux absolutely despises me, so I’m thinking he’s the half of Mr. Erisolsprite that was quite acerbic with me,” Jake’s face fell, but then lit up, “So you must understand that I’m pleased as punch to finally meet the cordial half of my good old friend!”

It was more like both of them, in their mixed existence where individual emotions were hard to pull apart sometimes, hated him quite equally, but Eridan decided that wasn’t the best way to greet someone. After all this was Roxy’s good friend and he was going to try his best.

“When did you decide to grace us with your appearance, good chap?” Jake swatted him on the shoulder in what Eridan assumed was supposed to be a friendly manner. The next time a human touched him without his permission Eridan was going to break something.

“L... last wweek,” Eridan mentally scolded himself for coming off as so feeble, “I’vve just been looking around for things to do, you knoww. Keep busy.”

“Wait, wasn’t I supposed to teach you how to do some of the boring programming so I wouldn’t have to do it?” Roxy checked the time, “Damn, we wasted so much time here. Okay, listen, we can continue this some other time, Eridan and I gotta go.”

“What? But we just met!” Jake protested.

Roxy gave Jake a pointed look and Jake shifted, “Actually, now that you mention it, I suppose I have a few things to do myself. Tell you what, old sport! I’ll give you my ChumHandle and you can talk to me there!”

As they walked through the empty-ish streets, Eridan with a folded piece of paper in hand, he asked, “So Rox, wwhy the fuck did you usher us out like he wwas gonna set the place on fire?”

Roxy raised her eyebrow, “Thought that was obvious. So you don’t have to deal with him? You know, you and your whole self-imposed isolation stuff. I mean, Jake’s a super nice guy, but he’s a little… you know him.”

Eridan shrugged. He supposed that Roxy had every right to think that he’d have some sort of full-blown attack from seeing Jake if he was so reluctant on seeing his old troll… acquaintances? “I guess he’s not so bad. I could’ve probably talked to him just fine.”

“No way? Go Eri!” Roxy pumped her fist in the air, “Being all social and shit!”

He laughed, “Yeah, vvery social. I stuttered a complete sentence to someone, noww I’m the life a the fuckin party.”

“Shut up and let me be proud of you,” Roxy wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tightly. And as they walked through the darkness with only streetlamps for illumination, Eridan secretly hoped that this wouldn’t be the last time he felt so content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this one being late! I try to have these out by Friday, and it's already Sunday...  
> To be honest though, this chapter was going to turn out much differently, but then I realized it didn't make sense, and I had to do lots of brainstorming... yeah, not the best. At the very least it's out in the weekend.
> 
> Also, in every friendship I am the Roxy, the Eridan AND the Karkat.


	4. Slipstitch

“Listen fucker,” Karkat crossed his arms, “You’re so pale for Lalonde that your thinkpan is actually drowning in its own pathetic, pinkish secretions.”

“As much as I consider you a friend, Kar, I could just kick you out a my hivve,” said Eridan.

Karkat gave a short, sarcastic laugh, “You can shove your entire wretched, hideous shoe up my wastechute, it’s not going to change anything.”

After Karkat’s multiple visits, Eridan was glad he had the foresight to alchemize another chair so he wouldn’t have to be standing or sitting on his desk. It encouraged Karkat to stay for longer than the usual five to ten minutes, and while Eridan didn’t usually mind it, sometimes Karkat could be a little… probing.

“I’m just saying, you should know what’s going on with your emotions and such,” Karkat shrugged, “Come on, you used to always tell me shit about Vriska and Feferi.”

“Okay, but just consider this for a second,” Eridan crossed his legs on his chair, “Maybe I don’t _wwant_ to be in any quadrants?”

Karkat actually looked taken aback, “Wait, what?”

“It’s just, I don’t knoww,” he let out a frustrated sigh, “After you completely obliterate any prevvious romantic endevvors, it’s hard to look forewward into getting into another one. The last thing I fuckin need is to ruin things betwween  me and one a my only friends.”

“Wow, uh… okay,” Karkat gave him an almost apologetic look, “But what if she feels the same way about you?”

“Firstly Kar, humans don’t have moirallegiance so that’s complete bullshit,” Eridan heard Karkat mutter something that he ignored, “Secondly, Rox is the sort a person to let you knoww howw she feels about you, and wwe’re just good friends or howwevver human friendship wworks. Thirdly, and most importantly, as prevviously mentioned, I don’t _wwant_ to be in any quadrants.”

“I still think that’s complete bullshit, but I’m leaving,” Karkat kicked his chair in, “Next time, I’m bringing food because you apparently don’t have a fucking hunger trunk in here.”

Eridan leaned back in his chair again, resisting the urge to groan loudly to the flat walls around him. Wait a second… if the outside of the hive itself was shaped like a giant can, why was the inside all straight? Probably for insulation reasons, or to simply not force everyone to use curved furniture?

He suddenly remembered that he was supposed to meet up with Roxy again at… Jake’s company or something. The last few times were not _disastrous_ per se, but Eridan could tell Roxy thought he was pretty unskilled in all things technical. Programming languages gave him a headache, and he was still trying to grasp the basics of HTML/CCS. Eridan was at least familiar with troll technology, but human-developed ones were baffling.

Besides, what other skills does he possibly have that would be of any use? Extensive knowledge of troll military history? Hunting lusii? None of those things are in any way helpful, so here he was, learning code. At least Roxy was being nice about the whole ordeal.

 _Stupid Karkat and his menacing desire to push people into quadrants._ Sure Eridan and Roxy hung out, and sure someone who wasn’t there might interpret their interactions as romantic ones, but by that logic Karkat would be in a quadrant with everyone. What a pale whore. Then again a pale whore’s a lot better than an absolutely anything whore, Eridan reasoned begrudgingly.

~~~~~

“Eri I know you _think_ you’re going at a really slow pace, but you’re not that bad for someone who doesn’t even like this stuff,” Roxy patted him lightly on the shoulder. He was hoping he could get used to these humans’ inability to keep their grubby paws to themselves, but he could still feel where her hand pressed against him. It was… bothersome.

“I wwas hoping that wwasn’t too obvvious,” Eridan continued to stare at the screen.

“Nah it’s okay. It’s really awesome how you’re trying!” said Roxy, “It means that despite everything, you still want to put effort into becoming a better person!”

“Is that wwhy you asked Rose to teach you howw to knit in the first place?” Eridan inquired.

Roxy shrugged, “I mean, it’s not like that… okay it’s a little like that.”

“Like wwhat?”

“Like… you know, we don’t really have a lot in common,” Roxy sighed, “I mean there’s wizards, but that can really only last you, what, one conversation? And then we hung out a lot less after she got married.”

“She got wwhat?” Eridan raised an eyebrow, “Married?”

“Oh no, you weren’t there for the wedding!” Roxy gasped, “it was so great, there was cake and all of us went trickster again because _Callie has no self-control_ -,”

“I havve absolutely no idea wwhat the fuck you’re prattlin on about Rox.”

“I’ll explain what weddings are later, it’s like a human romance thing,” she waved her hand before her face shifted to a more worried expression, “Anyway, she’s my only family, you know? I thought after winning the game and spending time with her would make us closer, but I feel like we’re just, not working out?”

Eridan thought about the time Rose spoke sharply at her and other times where Roxy’s attempts at being friendly fell flat, “Wwell, if it makes you feel any better, she probably dislikes me more than you.”

“Oh come on, she does _not_.”

“Did she not tell you howw wwe first met?” Eridan turned away from her to hide the slightest tinge of embarrassment in his face, “Long story short our first convversation ended up in her explodin my husktop. And honestly I don’t evven blame her.”

“I… oh wow, I guess that was pretty bad,” Roxy admitted, “But no matter how much I try to talk to her and be nice to her, I think she still hates me.”

“Rose doesn’t hate you,” he assured, “She’s only snippy at you because you suck at knittin.”

Roxy burst into laughter, “Wow, thanks Eri, real comforting there. You just made me feel _so_ much better!”

“Oh shit, I didn’t mean it like that,” Eridan panicked. Was that sarcasm? She meant this sarcastically, right?  “I, fuck, I meant that, I’m so sorry, you really aren’t that bad-,”

“Relax, I’m kidding,” Roxy’s reassuring grin made Eridan felt an odd feeling in his chest that he wasn’t very familiar with, so he mostly ignored it, “So you really think it has nothing to do with me?”

“Honestly Rox you knoww how she is. Fuckin acts like she’s abovve evveryone,” he ignored the slight heat in his face, “If it wwas the other wway around and I wwas the one wwho sucked bulge at knittin she wwould’vve throwwn my sorry ass on the front steps by noww. She’s probably tryin to be nice to you too but in her wweird wway. ”

She turned forward and exhaled, then turned back to him with a small smile, “I guess maybe you’re right.”

“There’s no ‘maybe’ Rox I am fuckin right,” Eridan responded.

This made Roxy laugh again and shove him slightly, “Someone’s getting sassy.”

“I’m not being sassy, I’m being honest wwith ya here,” he insisted, “Evverything’s alright, you’ll see. It’s just that things don’t get better as fast as you wwant them too, and that’s fuckin terrifyin in its owwn right, but you just gotta wwait it out sometimes if its really wworth it.”

“Yeah, I hope so,” she turned back to Eridan’s screen, “Was this your way of getting out of learning  how to program this whole time?”

“Wwhat, is it already time to go?” Eridan checked the clock, and sure enough their time was up. He was still weirded out by the diurnal sleeping patterns humans had, but trying to meet up with Roxy all the time has forced him to try to match theirs a little better. Even Karkat seems to have matched their abnormal schedule, so Eridan might as well.

Right before they parted ways outside of the building, the giant science above surprisingly unlit, instead of giving the usual wave, Roxy pulled Eridan in for a tight hug. Before he could properly react he tensed his body up and stared straight ahead. Just when Eridan thought he was getting used to this excessive physical contact-

“Hey, thanks for everything,” she said as she pulled away.

Eridan’s head was reeling, “I did vvirtually nothing though…”

“Actually, you made me feel so much better,” Roxy replied, “Honestly it was getting so bad I was considering quitting the whole knitting business. Anyway, see you tomorrow!”

He was still processing her words as he watched her walk off. Wait, she felt _that_ bad? Roxy Lalonde, so afraid of someone that she’d refuse to show up somewhere? Eridan suddenly felt so guilty. Here he was, bothering everyone around him because he was afraid of being seen, while Roxy hid all her fears behind a cheery demeanor and making everyone else around her happy. If only Eridan could help her in some way. Maybe he could talk to Rose? Maybe make her better at knitting so Rose would criticize her less? Or maybe he could just be a shoulder to cry on-

No. No, this was not happening. Eridan immediately tried to squash any form of emotion that might’ve been stirred up by Lalonde into an easily-discarded ball of mistakes. He didn’t do well with quadrants, he didn’t do well with quadrant-related feelings, and his feelings aren’t even real so they don’t matter. At least 90% of any romantic inclinations he’s ever had were out of a desperate desire to not be lonely.  Being mixed with Sollux made him realize that romantic feelings don’t usually come with a desire to identify wholly by that relationship, and he knew better than to try to be in any sort of romantic ties with his rather unpleasant disposition. No one deserved that. Not Feferi, not Vriska, not any of the trolls and humans he threw himself at blindly. And definitely not Roxy.

Eridan went to his recuperacoon early in the hopes that the sopor would make his brain too tired to think about his conflicting emotions, but that was rather unsuccessful. He hoped he wouldn’t be too tired for tomorrow’s knitting session. Especially if he was going to see Roxy. And Rose, of course, since he felt equally platonic feelings about the both of them.

~~~~~

One of the main reasons Eridan was able to sneak around to Rose’s hive so often was because her dwelling was rather far away from society as well – not as far as his hive, which was so far it brushed against the uncleared forests, but enough so that rushing over there made him only slightly nervous. Most of the time there weren’t any trolls around, but as he approached the cylindrical structure he noticed Roxy casually chatting with someone outside. And it was no human.

Before Eridan could even try to find out who it was, he already threw himself behind Rose’s house rather ungracefully. Eridan knew Roxy wouldn’t intentionally try to bring a troll here, so they probably came of their own volition. But _why_ where they here? Maybe they needed something from Roxy? Probably something work-related?

_Where they here because of him?_

Terror struck through Eridan as he slid his back down the wall of Rose’s hive, but as he took deep breaths he started clearing his head. It probably wasn’t about him, that’d be ridiculous. The other trolls don’t know about him, and Roxy would definitely protect his identity, if their time with Jake was an indication. Eridan slowly inched closer towards the source of the chatter.

“…only reason I’m asking you this is because I need multiple sources,” Eridan immediately recognized that voice.

“I already told you, Karkat, we really only hang out at knitting sessions and when I take him to work with me,” Roxy insisted.

“That’s _it_?”

“I mean,” she paused, “I dunno, I don’t wanna invade his privacy or whatever. Is hanging out daily not enough?”

Is Karkat… is he seriously trying to wring every drop of his personal life out through Roxy? Eridan stifled a snicker and silently walked up to them.  

“You know, the second I think I’m getting somewhere with you bulgesniffing aliens, you managed to prove me wrong, every time,” Eridan could only see the back of Karkat’s head.

Roxy, who was facing the direction Eridan came from, looked up and waved, “Oh hey Eri!”

“Yeah nice try Roxy, that shit isn’t going to work on me again-,”

Karkat had slowly turned his head around and jumped back, screeching something incomprehensible. Eridan knew that anything more than a grin would have Karkat not visit him for a week, but Roxy held no such qualms against cackling loudly.

“I’m going to _fucking cull your ass Eridan!_ ” Karkat’s face was contorted in anger.

“Wwere you guys talking about me?” Eridan crossed his arms.

“No we weren’t, you self-absorbed lumpsquirting seadouche!”

Eridan narrowed his eyes at Karkat, then shrugged, “Anywway, Kar, you can stay out here and chat up a storm wwith Rox all you wwant, but I’vve got a knittin lesson to attend to.”

“I was gonna leave anyways,” Karkat grumbled, “Don’t you ever do that shit to me again.”

As the two of them watched him stomp towards town, Eridan asked without turning his head, “You guys wwere totally talking about me.”

“Yup!”

“And I’m assumin he told you vvery specifically to not breathe a wword of it to me?”

“With tons of threats that I only half understood, yeah.”

“Yeah but I basically heard a ton anywways,” Eridan hoped he could get something out of her, “Wwhy wwas he askin how much wwe hang out?”

“Eri, listen,” Roxy tilted her head towards him, “I don’t work with him all that often, that’s more Rose’s thing, but even I know better than to tell you anything. He almost died right now; I don’t want Dave to come after me to avenge him or something.”

“Fine, let’s just go inside before Rose wwonders wwhy wwe’re standin outside a her hivve,” Eridan headed towards the door.

As the three of them continued their lesson, he noticed that Rose’s spirits was surprisingly high. Apparently, she explained that they had made some progress on raising grubs that bored Eridan slightly and made him zone into what his hands were occupied doing.

“What direction is your current project going in, Eridan?” Rose asked, “Looks like you discarded the previous one.”

“Wwell, I wwasn’t really liking the knit twwice purl once look,” he gestured his current half-complete project in his lap, “I thought maybe knit twwice purl twwice might look better for a scarf.”

“Lucky you, I still have no idea what to make,” Roxy frowned, “I mean, I think I’m getting a lot better at the whole knitting process, but no clue what I’d make.”

“There’s plenty of first-timer projects you can try,” offered Rose, “A lot of people do scarves like Eridan, although not usually a striped scarf.”

“Yeah wwell cuz they’re _fuckin annoying_.”

“I don’t know, scarves are really boring,” Roxy shrugged overdramatically, sneaking a smile at Eridan.

“Wwoww okay Rox, fuck you too then,” Eridan hoped that by not making his facial expression angry she would understand that he was joking, “Though really, my old scarf wwas probably knit better than anything I could evver do on my first try.”

“Your old scarf was hand-made too?” Roxy asked, “I just thought you bought it or something.”

“Yeah, wwell, back wwhen I first started hunting for Fef’s lusus, she apparently wwanted to givve me a wwelcoming gift or something,” Eridan explained with a wave of his hand, “Maybe out of gratitude, maybe out of boredom. It doesn’t matter; I still liked it a lot.”

“I mean, weren’t you and Feferi friends?” Roxy started a new row of stitches, “I’m sure she meant it as a nice gesture.”

Eridan laughed, “No not Fef, her lusus.”

Rose knit her brows, as if it took a few seconds to process what Eridan said, “You mean to tell me that _G’lbgolyb_ , emissary to the Horrorterrors, made you a scarf _?_ ”

“Rose wwe’vve been ovver this,” Eridan replied in annoyance, “Evveryone and evverything invvolved wwith Horrorterrors knowws howw to knit. Did you think I wwas joking or something?”

“No I just,” Rose composed herself again, “I suppose it’s possible. With all the extra appendages she probably knit each section separately and attached them all together.”

“In any case, one day I bring her a dead lusus, but then Fef insists she wants to showw me something, and next thing I knoww hundreds of tentacles are surrounding me, then wwrapping something around my neck, I get a pat on the head like some sort of barkbeast and sent off,” he continued, “Terrifyin for a 4 sweep old wwriggler.”

“It’s fascinating that you’ve managed to have so much casual contact with her over years,” Rose’s hands were working furiously on a sweater, but she was leaning towards Eridan with interest, “Did you ever get to see any of the Horrorterrors themselves?”

“Rose believve it or not before this stupid game I actually liked staying alivve,” Eridan rolled his eyes, “So no. You should talk to Fef about it, if she’s back or wwhatever.”

Wow, they sure were talking a little too much about Feferi for his comfort. Though really, Eridan reasoned, the reason for his discomfort was all his fault and nothing to do with any of the things she did.

“Anywway if you aren’t making a scarf then make something else, I don’t actually care,” he tried to change the subject at hand, “Wwhat do you think, Rose? Bein the experienced one and all.”

“Well, you could try a simple hat,” she turned towards Roxy, “Gloves, though I suppose fingerless ones for simplicity. A small poncho if you’re rather dedicated. Or maybe-,” Rose was cut off by a high-pitched ping from the other room. Eridan leaned over and craned his neck in order to see where it came from.

“I apologize for that. I thought I had turned down the volume of my laptop,” Rose opened her mouth to speak again, but then an onslaught of pings erupted from behind her.

“Whoa, Rose, I didn’t know you were so popular!” Roxy winked at her.

“It’s more like that several workers need to ask me something about the new breeding developments again,” she responded neutrally, but she was smiling a little, “Don’t equate me to some sort of stale teenage archetypal character.”

“See you say that, but I’m sure it’s just your dedicated fan club finding out your new Chum Handle,” said Roxy.

“Oh no, we wouldn’t want that,” she held a hand up to her face in a mock-shocked gesture, “There’s only so many dreadfully morose combinations of words I can come up with.”

Ugh, the humans were doing it again. This stupid banter they do that’s supposed to not be literal but also has absolutely no purpose. But as he watched them laugh together, Eridan was suddenly grateful the two Lalondes were actually talking to each other for once. He was tired of being the main source of conversation between the both of them. Also maybe if they were getting along alright, Roxy would feel better and not be so upset-

Eridan mentally scolded himself and said over the sound of continued pinging, “I don’t wwant to interrupt this useless convversation, but are you going to get to those, Rose? The sound’s annoying as all fuck.”

Rose sighed and stood up, “The things I do for you, Ampora.”

“Yeah, Eri, you’re the only one bothered by it, sheesh.”

Wait, this was such a bad idea. Now he was alone with Roxy, who was busy twisting her face in concentration as she made her knots. It was getting harder to ignore the increasingly stupid desire to sit closer to her and talk to her about _feelings_. Ugh.

“Hey Eridan, what was your title in SBURB?” Roxy suddenly asked, “I mean, if that’s okay or whatever.”

“Prince of Hope,” Eridan shrugged, “But imagine the shittiest Prince of Hope in existence.”

“Hey, no way, Jake’s a Hope player too!” she grinned, “And Dirk’s a Prince! This is so awesome, you’re like a combination of the two of them!”

Speaking of Jake, wasn’t he supposed to message him? Better try getting to that eventually. At least for Roxy’s sake.

“It’s just that, I was thinking,” Eridan swore he saw a glimmer in her eyes that was almost foreboding, “Since I’m a Rogue of Void, I have all these cool powers, right?”

“Okay?”

“And I was wondering if I could straight up make a hat or something with my Void powers,” she folded her legs under her, “Holy shit, how amazing would that be?”

“Howw the fuck wwould you make something with vvoid?” he tried to remember who their session’s Void player was and realized he didn’t particularly care.

“I steal it away from whatever I want, duh,” Roxy turned herself towards Eridan and hunched over, “Here, let me show you.”

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then a flash of light. In between her palms was a snowy white beanie with a familiar cat logo on it, in perfect knit-stitch. Eridan was stunned.

Roxy grabbed the hat and immediately shoved it on Eridan’s head, “Hey look, it fits you!”

“Ugh wwhat the fuck Rox, no it doesn’t!” he couldn’t help laughing, “You didn’t even put the holes for my horns in.”

“Oh right, hold on,” she closed her eyes and repeated the process, but instead a hat with two small holes appeared, “Now try this one!”

“No, the holes aren’t big enough, do you think I’m a fucking wwriggler?”

“Fine hold on, lemme get a good look at them.”

Roughly five minutes of Voiding-in hats later, as Roxy admired her handiwork nestled on top of Eridan’s head, Rose walked in from the other room, sighing, “I can’t believe how long it took to settle down that issue. What a nightm-,”

She stopped in the doorway, eyes wide in surprise as she stared at the pile of hats. Eridan realized that this was probably not a good sign, but Roxy apparently didn’t.

“Hey Rose, guess what?” Roxy held up a handful of hats gleefully, “I made a ton of Void hats! Do you want one? There’s a few without holes in them.”

“Get out.”

Unfiltered rage enveloped every inch of Rose, so much so that Eridan wasn’t entirely sure how to react. It was clear that she was trying to keep her face in that same disinterested expression, but it was offset by her clenched jaw and blazing eyes.

“Wh-What?” Roxy’s voice broke.

“Don’t make me repeat myself.”

 “Wwait, Rose, wwhat the fuck is going on?” Eridan tried asking, but Roxy had already gotten up and sped towards the door, head firmly set downwards and hands into tight fists.

He stood up and dashed after her, not at all caring about the yarn in his lap, the various hats that scattered around once he bolted upwards, or that he wasn’t supposed to care about Roxy. By the time he turned around the door had shut behind her.

Eridan opened the door to confirm what he already knew. Roxy was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi so it's been... a month? More than a month? I'm terrible, aren't I?  
> There's several reasons why this came out so late, but it's mostly due to more pressing life matters and not knowing where to take this chapter. I wish I could promise that the next chapter won't take as long, but... I mean it shouldn't. Hopefully.


	5. Swatch

“Don’t waste your time finding a Void player, Eridan,” Rose’s voice was slightly muffled to Eridan, but he wasn’t sure if it was because she wasn’t facing him or because he was still trying to scan the visible area outside of Rose’s front door.

“Rose wwhat-,” he turned around, bewildered, “Wwhy the fuck-?”

“I know _exactly_ what you want to tell me,” she used a palm to roughly shove her bangs away from the center of her face, “I don’t want to hear it. I’ve had enough contempt aimed at me as is.”

“Wwhat the fuck did Rox evven do though?” he demanded, but Rose didn’t seem to be listening.

“Don’t come back tomorrow,” Eridan heard from behind as he picked up the bag he used to carry his knitting supplies, and now Roxy’s multiple hats, “We won’t be having a lesson.”

Eridan barely checked around for anyone on the walk back to his hive, and as soon as he got back he slumped into the only piece of furniture he had that could be sat on. Eridan could only feel uneasy about the whole affair, and he had no idea what to do. He’d never been the neutral party in an argument before; auspiticism was never a strong suit of his. But of course, he had to be thinking of quadrants again.

It really isn’t any of his business what happens between two humans. For all he knew, this might be a normal, healthy part of their miserable existence. Maybe this is what they have instead of kismesises, some sort of platonic hatred between offspring and mother grubs. Eridan figured that if he tried to intervene, at worst he’d make everything more awful and at best humiliate himself.

Eridan twisted his fingers furiously around his yarn and needles, focusing intensely on getting the stitches to perfectly match the size of the lighter blue portions he already finished. Maybe things will get better. Maybe tomorrow, Roxy will suddenly appear and it was just some huge misunderstanding and she wouldn’t have that look of utter despair on her face right before she left. But all Eridan could do was knit.

~~~~~

By next morning, Eridan had completed a cleanly-woven scarf but felt none of the joy it was supposed to give him. It looked nice, and he was slightly comforted by the nostalgic feeling of wool around his neck, but he thought there would be much more fanfare when he completed it. Though now that he thought about it, why would there be fanfare? It’s just a scarf.

Though what if Eridan made another one? But with horizontal stripes instead of vertical ones? No that’s look weird. Or maybe a scarf with thinner vertical stripes? Too much of a pain. Maybe he’d make some solid colored scarves in the meantime.

After knitting for a good couple hours, though he wasn’t sure how long, Eridan decided that he should probably take a break. He normally used the alchemiters to make food for himself, and since he didn’t really care for cooking, most of it was easily stored, packaged stuff. It’s been a while since he’s had actual food instead of this junk. Maybe one day Eridan could get Roxy to-

It’s been a good 16 hours and Eridan was worried sick about her.

He had no clue where her hive was, he knew she wouldn’t show up at Rose’s, and there’s no way he could show up at the building she works at during the day. Eridan briefly considered messaging her, but realized that they didn’t exactly exchange any way to contact each other. It didn’t really occur to him to give his troll tag to someone he saw pretty much every single day. The only other people he had added on Trollian were the trolls, Rose, and Jade, none of which were of any use right now.

Wait.

Eridan searched around the small mess in his hive and found a slip of paper with “golgothasTerror” scrawled onto it in elongated, uneven script. Eridan quickly jumped to his husktop and punched his tag in but faltered as he was typing his message. What exactly should he say? Should Eridan introduce himself? Would Roxy want him to know what’s going on with her? There could be a lot of things that could go wrong by sending this. What if this made her only more upset? What if he completely ruined their friendship?

Eridan decided to refocus. It was probably not likely that any of those things will happen. All he had to do was be eloquent enough to start this conversation.

CA: hi 

There, he did it. Nice and smooth. Now if Eridan was lucky he wouldn’t respond until-

GT: Mr. Eridan! I’m absolutely chuffed to talk to you again!

Deep breaths. All he had to do was take deep breaths. Eridan’s talked to Jake before, he could do it again.

CA: hey so havve you seen rox recently 

GT: In the flesh? Not since we all last saw each other, I think. Why do you ask?

“I” Eridan typed, then stopped.

CA: she was supposed to meet up wwith us for her knittin lessons and she didn’t and I don’t havve her troll tag either so I cant message her

GT: Ill try messaging her too, as soon as Im out of this forest. Its not as big or crawling with knicker-twistingly dangerous creatures as id like, but it’s still a jolly good time.

Oh no, is this small talk? Eridan was never really sure on how to have casual conversations with people. Before he would normally keep the conversation focused on himself or whatever gossip Karkat and him had unearthed, but since that didn’t get him very far maybe the opposite was true. Maybe he should act interested in whatever Jake was talking about?

CA: oh yeah, I livve near a forest. you a hunter or something 

GT: Wait how close are you?

CA: to the forest? 

GT: It’s not that abandoned old can house is it?

CA: I mean I don’t think any buildings can be considered old yet seeing as this planet was just made

GT: Give me a few minutes.

CA: k

Eridan briefly wondered about what he could put in the basement of his hive, since mostly he’d been using it as a place to store all the garbage he accidentally made with the alchemiters so that no one would find anything suspicious, when he heard a sound coming from outside. It sounded like frantic, clunky footsteps accompanied with a deep panting. Eridan already feared the worst when he heard a tapping accompanied with a, “It’s me, Mr. Eridan! Mind if you open up a bit?”

After entering Eridan’s hive, Jake’s eyes roamed the sparse living space with slightly concealed surprise before he chipped in, “Well, you seem to be a rather simple fellow, aren’t you? Glad you found some use out of this place!”

Eridan remembered how sure he felt that he could talk to Jake before, but now he wasn’t so sure, “I do wwhat I can I guess.”

Jake snickered, “ _Can_ , I get it. Good one old chap!”

Eridan gave a nervous chuckle and kept his eyes on the floor, “So does Rox havve a trolltag or something?”

“Right,” Jake took out his phone, “I’ll try messaging her a bit too in the meantime. Her ChumHandle is tipsyGnostalgic – if you want I could spell that out for you.”

Eridan was busy turning his obnoxiously slow husktop on when he replied, “Just wwait for me to get on first.”

After a minute of silence, Jake sighed and bemoaned, “She’s not answering me. Maybe she’s busy?”

“I’ll just add her anyway,” Eridan shrugged.

“It’s weird that she didn’t give it to you herself. Aren’t you two the bestest of pals now?”

“I mean I dunno,” he turned back to his husktop.

“Cuz she talks about you to me all the time!” Jake laughed, “Always going on about, ‘ _Eridan’s super talented_ ’ and ‘ _He’s really funny when he’s not acting all shy and quiet_ ’ and all that yammer. Really, you’d think she’s a preteen gushing over a crush or something.”

Eridan silently cursed him for bringing up crushes, of all things. Since Roxy always seemed the kind of person to have a million more people that are way more interesting than Eridan to talk to, it never occurred to him that she would ever talk about him to anyone. Just the thought of Roxy thinking anything of him seemed too good to be true and wasn’t making his internal organs flip around.

“I can assure you that I am neither of those things,” Eridan crossed his arms, “Talented or funny I mean.”

Jake gave an exaggerated shrug with a lopsided smile, “Well, that’s what I’ve been dealing with for the last week or two. Anyway, I better head out, since I just threw myself into your home without even warning you.”

“Yeah I noticed,” Eridan remembered that Jake was trying to be nice and there was no reason to snap at him, “It’s alright, I had nothing to do anywway. All I’vve been doing is knittin.”

“But we do need to spend some time together!” Jake exclaimed cheerily, “Maybe a good old round of fisticuffs, or some adventuring in the forest over there, it’ll be fun!”

“Sure I guess maybe someday,” Eridan didn’t like to think about doing what Jake considered fun.

A few hours after Jake left, Eridan tried messaging Roxy, even though she wasn’t online, in the hopes that maybe she’ll see his message and reply. However, a solid knit scarf later, he figured he wouldn’t get a response anytime soon.

Part of Eridan was hoping that this would resolve itself, but another part of him hated how passive he’d become. Sure, he was a total asshole before, but at least he was a productive asshole. He fought his own FLARPing battles, won his own treasure, made a name for himself. Even among the other violet bloods he was rather well-known, and it was no accident that he was assigned the position of Orphaner alongside the future empress.

Eridan decided he’d do something about it.

~~~~~

“The only reason I opened my door is because I am genuinely, dreadfully curious as to why you thought it a safe move to come back here,” Rose’s usual headband sat unevenly on slightly messy hair.

“I come here evveryday Rose. For knittin, remember?”

“I thought I said we weren’t having any more knitting lessons.”

“Twwo days ago, you said not to come tomorroww,” Eridan explained, “So I didn’t. I wwaited until today.”

She glared at him for a few seconds before ducking her head for a chuckle, “Of all the things I’ve had to deal with from you, this is probably the most asinine. Fine, you can come in.”

As Eridan sat down and took out his knitting supplies, Rose glanced interestedly at him and stated, ‘If you’re here to tell me to apologize to Roxy, it won’t happen.”

“I’m not.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I still havve no idea wwhy you’re upset and I wwant to knoww,” Eridan didn’t have to look at his needles anymore as long as he was doing one kind of stitch, “I don’t knoww jack shit about humans and their relationships wwith each other, and I didn’t do anything wwrong, right?”

Rose muttered under her breath, “I suppose not.”

“Alright then. Wwhat sort of sacred human ritual did Rox vviolate wwith her clumsy wways?”

She rolled her eyes, “It’s not that sort of situation. A fortnight before you were reawoken on Earth C, she was chattering on and on about how much she _loved_ my handmade sweater and practically groveled on her knees so I could teach her. Here I was, thinking that she actually cared about _knitting_. _”_

“Wwell she came to all the lessons right?”

“Of course she came to all the lessons Eridan,” Rose gestured exasperatedly, “She’s only trying to humor me. It’s one thing to be merely unskilled at something, it’s an entirely other thing to have me put effort into teaching you every single day out of some diaphanous desire to try to forge a friendship.”

Eridan perplexedly leaned his head forward, “Wwhat’s wwrong wwith Rox trying to be friends wwith you?”

“That’s not it,” she sighed, “It’s insulting. It’s unforgivingly insulting and belittling. Roxy thinks that all she has to do is pretend to like the same things I do in order for us to be friends, when really she’s just trying to take over the only thing she hasn’t taken over from me already.”

Eridan sensed he might be encroaching on some deeper context, “I havve honestly no idea wwhat you’re talking about.”

“She finds out I like knitting, she suddenly makes a bunch of knitted hats out of nowhere just because she can,” Rose scowled, “She finds out I like wizards, she attempts to incorporate wizards into every aspect of my life, but only the kind of wizards she has a preference for. She gets me Jaspers, then she holds an elaborate funeral after he dies just to indulge in some form of theatrics and several bottles of gin.”

Rose suddenly blinked and simply breathed, “Oh.”

Eridan wasn’t entirely sure what just happened, but he was pretty sure Rose had an epiphany of sorts, “Oh?”

“I can’t believe, after all these years,” her voice was thick with emotion, “I still can’t stop seeing my mom in Roxy. I know in an intellectual way that they’re different people but the resemblance is just… it’s too striking.”

She sat down next to Eridan and rubbed her temples, eyes closed, “Eridan, could you go get me water and the orange bottle of pills next to the sink in the kitchen?”

Eridan silently fetched a cold glass and the unmarked canister, then watched her swallow two tablets.

“They’re just painkillers,” she explained hastily, “Ever since I made my oath of sobriety, I’ve been suffering from dreadful headaches. It’s a small price to pay.”

“Sobriety from wwhat?” Eridan asked, “Wwhat, do humans have sopor and shit too?”

“I believe our version is called alcohol,” Rose supplied, then grimaced, “My mom was the reason I started drinking in the first place. “

“You humans are fuckin wwild, drinkin stuff meant to sleep in,” Eridan grumbled.

“We don’t sleep in – never mind,” Rose shook her head, “While I appreciate you coming here, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind me needing some time alone to go over a few thoughts.”

“Yeah I should get going anywway,” Eridan gathered the yarn in his lap, “I need to get back to my husktop and check if Rox answered any of my messages.”

“Why didn’t you alchemize a phone for yourself?” Rose gestured to hers, “I know you’ve been stewing among the dead for a few years now, but you need to catch up with technology.”

“We havve technology there too thank you vvery much,” Eridan rolled his eyes, “I just havven’t got around to it.”

Rose laughed, and it surprised Eridan because it was far more genuine than he thought it would be, “Remind me next time to tell you how to make one.”

Eridan barely checked over his shoulder on the walk home, not only because he knew by now his route would be mostly safe, but also from Rose surprisingly putting him in a good mood for once. Were they friends, as the humans called it? Is this how you make friends? Did Rose even want friends? This was giving Eridan a headache too.

He almost didn’t see the notification on his husktop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I took way longer this time. I'm so sorry! Before it would take me forever because I obsessed over every single detail of this story but that made me dread writing it. Now I plan on just... going with the flow? Letting the sotry write itself? In any case it should update way faster.
> 
> I was originally have all the chat portions be in the fancy homestuck skin, but I decided against it because it seemed 1.) too difficult and 2.) distracting.  
> Update: I finally figured it out! Now you guys get to enjoy all the color to your heart's content.


	6. Knotted

Eridan tripped on his way to the desk, but managed to successfully open the Trollian tab anyway. Onscreen was a message from Jake asking if Roxy messaged him back yet.

Eridan was going to respond before he saw a new contact, and after clicking on it saw a meek-looking “hey eri”  in bright pink text.

Eridan could feel himself tense up in fear. What was he going to say to her? What if he messed this up so badly all the progress with Rose would be nullified? Suddenly another message popped up.

TG: sorry for taking forever to get back with u lol  
TG: idk why i put a lol there  
TG: i hope ur k though after everything that happened

He suddenly remembered this was Roxy, his friend and definitely not his pale-crush. The most unjudgemental and laid back person he’d ever met. If their positions were switched, what would she do?

CA: haha no its k I get u

Wow that was so painful and fake he might had as well changed the text color too.

CA: sorry im not really good at this  
TG: not good at what?  
CA: wwell to be honest a lot of things  
CA: but right now i mean the wwhole bein a helpful friend thing  
CA: i mean are you okay though  
CA: wwell obvviously not that was a stupid fuckin question  
CA: wwhat im tryin to say is that after the wwhole shitstorm wwith rose and the fact that you’vve been missin for a wwhile its probably a bad sign and i asked jake for your troll tag if that’s okay  
TG: whoa eri slow down  
TG: and its cool you got my chum handle from jake cuz i thought i gave it to you already but i guess not?

Eridan noticed she was avoiding his most pressing question: was she okay? He remembered Jake’s message, saw that he was online, and responded.

CA: shes talkin to me noww  
GT: Boy howdy!!! you mean right now?  
CA: yes jake I mean right fuckin noww and i havve no idea wwhat to do  
GT: Talk to her!  
CA: could you givve me maybe a little more helpful advvice troll einstein  
GT: Right sorry old sport  
CA: howw do I ask her howw she’s feelin because she wwont tell me  
GT: I suppose you’ve got to bite the bullet and ask her straight out  
GT: youre not the one who shes in a tight mess with right? you should be fine  
CA: if rox nevver speaks to me again im blaming you  
GT: Rolal wouldn’t do that and you know it  
CA: youre right im just bein an ass as usual  
GT: I believe in you comrade! i know you have the raw gumption in you to do this  
CA: I havve no idea wwhat that means but thanks

Eridan realized he left Roxy hanging for a few minutes and switched conversations.

TG: heyy eridan are you still there?

Wow Eridan felt like a douchebag. He decided to take Jake’s advice in being straightforward and typed without thinking too hard about it.

CA: sorry im back  
CA: anyway howws evverythin like are you okay

Before she could respond, a battering sound at his door made him jump.

“Kar is that you?” he called out.

“Who the fuck else would it be?” Karkat opened the door but didn’t enter, “Are you busy or something?”

“No, wwell, yeah kinda but come in,” Eridan didn’t turn away from the screen and waited for Roxy to respond.

“Hey, you’re back on Trollian again? Huh,” Karkat leaned in to read the messages, but Eridan glared at him.

“Fuck Kar, you can’t just snoop in on evverythin I’m doing!”

“Sorry, you’re right,” Karkat leaned back and pretended he wasn’t interested in who Eridan was messaging, “So are you talking to Roxy?”

“Yeah and this is a bit of a tense situation right now,” Eridan had already told Karkat what happened between the two Lalondes, but since Eridan begged him not to do anything about it, Karkat mostly listened.

Suddenly, a notification popped up on Eridan’s screen:

TG: idk if this should be something i should be typing about here, y’know?  
Eridan felt his chest deflate. Karkat noticed Eridan’s face fall and asked, “Eridan?” but the troll didn’t look up until he finished typing.  
CA: its fine I get it if you don’t wwanna talk about it wwith me  
CA: it’s your own business i didn’t mean to pry or wwhatevver  
TG: oh no thats not what I meant!  
TG: I mean like itd be easier to talk about in person  
TG: instead of typing it out

“She’s totally asking you over Eridan,” Karkat leaned over Eridan’s shoulder.

“Kar wwhat the fuck did I just say about reading my messages?”

“Fuck you,” Karkat leaned back anyway, “You’re going to tell me what’s she saying anyway, so what’s the point?”

“It’s a matter of principle,” Eridan crossed his arms, “Besides, wwhat if Rox says something that she didn’t wwant you to knoww?”

“Fine, fine, that’s not the point” Karkat threw his hands up, “You have to go to her place.”

“She’s not asking me over.”

“Then you fucking tell me what Roxy’s trying to say!”

CA: wwhat do you mean ‘in person’?  
TG: ahhh fuck, my house is in the middle of the city, itd never work  
CA: don’t wworry about it  
TG: wait what?  
CA: im on my wway

Wait did Eridan really just agree to-?

Holy shit holy shit holy shit.

“Kar I just said I would go over to her hivve wwhat the fuck do I do?!?” he tugged at his scalp nervously.

A toothy grin plastered on his face, Karkat responded, “Well, Eri, I’m glad this day has come, where you can march up to her door and proclaim your everlasting pale love to her-,”

“I can’t just bloody march up to her door, she livves in the middle of towwn!” Eridan looked out the window, “And evveryone’s bound to be outside right noww and they’ll see me and immediately hate me for all the shit I did before and nevver speak to me again.”

Eridan, who was now standing, was suddenly hit by a wave of vertigo and he sloppily landed back in his chair. He felt a tightness around his throat that he first thought was caused by his scarf, but loosening it did nothing to make it stop.

“Eridan, whoa, are you okay?” he rushed to his friend who was now lying limply in his chair, breathing a little too heavily, “I brought food this time, you want any?”

“Sorry I’ll calm down,” Eridan closed his eyes.

“Don’t fucking apologize for something like that,” Karkat frowned, “You don’t have to do this, okay? Roxy wouldn’t want you like this.”

“It’s not only for Rox,” Eridan took in a deep breath, “I’m sick of being afraid all the time, of being the one evveryone’s trying to be nice to and take care of. Can’t I for once take care of someone else? I’m one of the few people Rox wwants to talk to right noww and if I wwaste it she could be hurt for a lot longer. I havve to do this, Kar, both for me and for her.”

Karkat was silent for a few minutes before responding, “That was really fucking pale Eridan.”

“You knoww wwhat? I’m making you come wwith me just ‘cause a that,” Eridan grabbed Karkat’s wrist.

“Eridan you can’t just drag me all the way to Lalonde’s hive!” Karkat screeched.

“I havve no idea wwhere it is, so you havve to show me anywway,” Eridan countered.

Karkat was about to respond, probably with something angry, when Eridan cut him off with a quiet, “Please.”

This seemed to soften him up. “Fine,” Karkat huffed, “But let go of my hand, don’t want Roxy to get the wrong idea.”

~~~~~

“See the house with the obnoxiously-colored door over there? That’s Roxy’s,” Karkat pointed to a strange-looking structure roughly 50 feet away, “I’ll stay with you until she opens the door on you, so go press that dong shouter.”

Their walk was mostly uneventful, as Karkat chattered about the various buildings and Eridan kept his eyes glued to the ground. The second he became brave enough to look up, he spotted a twin pair of horns turn towards him and wave, unnerving him so much he yanked Karkat’s sleeve forward to abscond faster.

Eridan walked up the steps and, after not finding any sort of button on the front, messaged Roxy, “hey im here” .

“Fuck, you need to do something romantic,” Karkat grumbled loud enough for Eridan to hear, “Throw rocks at her window.”

“Howw the evverlovvin fuck is that romantic?” Eridan yelled back.

“It’s a demonstration of your strength dumbass,” Karkat rolled his eyes, “Have you not learned anything from the movies we’ve watched?”

All of a sudden the front door slid open and inside was Roxy, shadow-eyed and sloppy-haired. Despite this, she smiled and Eridan had never been so overjoyed to see someone, anyone, anything, in his life.

“Rox!” he rushed towards her and wrapped his arms around her tightly. How did he even survive the past few days without her? All he knew was that going through the city full of trolls was well worth it.

He heard raspy laughter stating, “Eridan I can’t breathe holy shit how are you so strong?”

Eridan quickly let go and began apologizing profusely, but she stopped him, “It’s fine, trolls are super strong right? Anyway, welcome to Casa del Roxy.”

Eridan knew she was trying to be enthusiastic, but there was such exhaustion in her voice. Had she even slept?

"Yeah, the place is a mess, sorry,” she gestured the wires, papers, books, food wrappers, pencils, sticky notes, and miscellaneous metal parts lying around, “Anyway, I’ve been doing my work at home for a few days. Didn’t feel like getting up and getting ready.”

“It’s fine, don’t wworry,” Eridan said absentmindedly.

She plopped down in a heap of pillows lying against a wall and pulled out her phone. Without looking up, Roxy muttered, “‘Kay, so no one updated me on what they’re working on yet, which means I don’t have to do any work until then.”

Eridan simply stood at what is very clearly a pile, not knowing what to do. Humans don’t make piles for their moirails right? They don’t even have moirails. In any case, he would have to awkwardly stand here for a while-

“You don’t wanna sit?” Roxy patted the empty space next to her.

“Not really,” Eridan blurted quickly, “I’vve been sittin all day and I feel like standin.”

She shrugged but continued, “Anyway, I guess I ruined everything between me and Rose, right?”

Eridan opened his mouth to reply but Roxy continued, “I know you’re going to say that I didn’t but did you not see how pissed she was? I even messaged her a ton but she blocked me. And it’s all because I was so stupid!”

She slammed her fist into the floor before leaning over and pulling her legs to her chest. Eridan didn’t want to see her like this. Was she going to cry? If humans all have red blood would she have red tears? Eridan scanned what he could see of her face and didn’t see any translucent red streams down her face.

“Believve me Rox it’s not only you,” Eridan reassured cautiously, “There’s a lot of fuckin bizarre relationship business betwwen the twwo a you.”

“That doesn’t mean I didn’t cause any of it,” Roxy sniffled, “She’s my only family. Growing up I heard the coolest stories on how my mom fought the Batterwitch’s corrupt government and died heroically. I grew up alone, with all her stuff in her old house and dreaming about being able to meet her, and now that I can actually talk to her she hates me. ”

Wasn’t Roxy Rose’s mom? Or was Rose Roxy’s mom? Can two humans be each other’s moms? Eridan found human reproduction a little too nauseating to continue thinking about it.

“I talked to Rose before I came here,” Eridan confessed, “And she doesn’t hate you or wwhatevver, I think she has her owwn issues.”

“Janey and Callie keep saying that I did nothing wrong, but they just don’t get it,” Roxy sighed, “Years ago I would’ve finished a whole liquor cabinet by now.”

“A wwhat?”

“Oh yeah, do trolls have alcohol?” she thought out loud.

“Don’t wworry, Rose told me all about humans and their sopor drinks,” Eridan said, “But I thought only she did that.”

“No, I had a problem too,” Roxy rearranged the pillows behind her back, “It was easier to get hammered than to deal with my own feelings about stuff. Everyone who saw me back then would think, ‘Oh here comes drunk Roxy, trying to fix everyone else’s mistakes when she’s a hot mess herself.’ I thought going sober would’ve fixed that.”

“You havve a billion good friends and I’m fucking positive none a them thought that Rox,” Eridan defended Roxy, “And I didn’t knoww you back then but I sure knoww you enough now to say I’m wway more of a hot mess than you.”

“Even if you are, which you aren’t, you were dead until like a month ago!” Roxy rolled her eyes, “You have an excuse.”

“Stop trying to turn this on me Rox,” Eridan’s legs stated to get tired, so he sat down on the carpeted floor, “My point is that I think you and Rose need to talk it out or something.”

Roxy turned away, downcast, “She already blocked me, remember?”

“You talk to her in person,” Eridan narrowed his eyes, “Just like wwhat wwe’re doing right noww.”

Roxy gave out a long groan and slid down the wall until she was lying flat on her back, “I know you’re right but I really don’t wanna see her.”

“Wwell not right now,” Eridan stretched his legs out, “I just came back from Rose’s hivve today. Guess you’d better wwait until tomorroww or something.

“Hey Eri, you should sleepover!” Roxy yanked his leg, “It’ll be so much fun!”

“You’re suddenly fuckin chipper aren’t ya,” Eridan remarked mock-suspiciously as he pulled his leg back.

“Oh hush, I haven’t seen anyone in forever and I’m gonna kick your ass in Halo.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm BACK!
> 
> Since school's out for me, updates are going to be far more regular. As well as other ideas for new fics! Hopefully. I can't be trusted with stuff like that lol.


	7. Cast Off

“Wwhy is this fuckin movie called _The Wwizard_ when there isn’t a single fuckin wwizard in it?” Eridan threw is hands in the air but kept his eyes glued to the screen, “And wwhat the evver loving shit is a California?”

“I can’t _believe_ how much Nintendo wants to push the Power Glove in this movie, it’s incredible,” Roxy crammed a fistful of popcorn into her mouth in a highly inelegant fashion.

After Roxy relentlessly annihilating Eridan in all of her two-player games, claiming that going easy on him “will only make you weaker in the long run,” they decided to find a movie about their shared interest in magic, and were now sitting in  the mountain of pillows with the TV being the only source of light in the room. However, they soon found that riffing the movie was a lot more satisfying than actually watching it.

Since Roxy’s Xbox was in front of her pillow pile, Eridan had no choice but to join her on it, mentally reminding himself that she was, _in no way_ , soliciting pale feelings towards him. After the third time he lost against Roxy in _Tekken_ , Eridan had completely forgotten about it.

“How are you knitting without even looking?” Roxy gestured to Eridan’s lap.

“It’s a really simple stitch so don’t need to check,” Eridan shrugged, then nodded to the screen, “Anywway look at this foppish wwavvy-coiffed dwweeb wwho thinks he’s the shit. Wwhat’s his name, Lucas?”

They snickered some more as Roxy licked her hands clean of popcorn residue. Suddenly she swiped one of her sticky hands on Eridan’s face and screamed, “Gotcha!”

“Ugh Rox wwhat the fuck?!?” Eridan rubbed a pillow against his face good-humoredly, “Get your literally grubby hands awway from me.”

“Fine, I’ll go wash up, but pause the movie,” Roxy kicked the remote to Eridan as she stood up, arms outstretched to prevent anything from touching her greasy hands. He put down his knitting to stop the movie and then absentmindedly listened to Roxy’s feet stumbling to the next room. Even when he was in a moirallegiance with Feferi, he had always felt red feelings for her, but just hanging out with Roxy and not worrying about anything was… nice. It was nice to be able to spend time with someone without being weighed down by the responsibilities he had. Even being with Feferi meant that he had to make sure G’lbgolyb was satiated, and she was one of the few people who didn’t merely tolerate him.

Roxy didn’t merely tolerate him, right? Eridan’s eyelids sunk downward as he briefly remembered that he hadn’t slept a few nights prior, but he determinedly reminded himself that Roxy and he were equals. He could comfort her in her times of need just like how she would for him, which made them friends, or whatever humans call this. He barely felt his head hit the pillows.

~~~~~

When he awoke, Eridan’s neck was a little stiff and he felt dried drool on his face, but he still felt a lot more refreshed. To his right was Roxy snoring quite loudly and inelegantly, limbs cast wildly around her as if she was spreading herself as much as possible. Eridan suddenly noticed that Roxy’s lips weren’t black as usual, but a pinkish color. Were they this color last night? Do humans’ lips change color when they’re asleep?

Even when decidedly disgusting Roxy really was cute in a way, Eridan begrudgingly admitted to himself. Anyone would gush pale for someone like her. So it’s fine that he has _some_ pale feelings, right? As long as he didn’t act on it?

Eridan slowly got up as to not wake her up and headed for the kitchen area. As soon as he entered, he suddenly heard a small peal from the floor. Three cats of various fur colors and sizes gazed up at him with glowing eyes, occasionally brushing by his pant leg lightly.

“Hungry are wwe noww?” Eridan gently reached down to pat one, and it rubbed its head into Eridan’s palm. He’d been around hungry creatures long enough to recognize when they want food, except he wasn’t certain what they would eat. Would he have to hunt for something?

His eye wandered to an open cabinet and caught on a stack of cans ( _why must everything be in cans?_ ) that had pictures of kittens wrapped around them and decided to open one to investigate. Inside was a meaty paste that smelled unappetizing, but the felines meowed louder and became more frenzied, so he assumed this was what they wanted. He watched with fascination as the creatures sloppily and eagerly ate.

Speaking of eating, Eridan was starving, and by that logic so was Roxy. The only things inside the fridge were more cans, except these were labelled things like “Monster” and “Red Bull”. Lots of bestial names. However, he found packages of blueberry muffins and decided to arrange them on a plate and bring them back to the room Roxy was in.

By now she was more awake but bleary-eyed, tilting her head upwards, “Eridan?”

“I, uh, fed your meowwbeasts and here’s some stuff I found,” he held the plate forward, “Humans eat muffins too right?”

“Why would I have muffins if I wouldn’t eat them?” Roxy yawned before biting into her breakfast, then said through a full mouth, “Sorry bout not having a ton of food.”

“It’s fine.”

They sat in silence and ate until Roxy spoke up, “I’m gonna have to talk to Rose, aren’t I?”

“That’s the whole fuckin point a me staying wwith ya, right?”

“Well, I mean, not _entirely_ ,” she replied, “You’re like one of my best friends! I really needed the emotional support or whatever.”

 _Emotional support_ \- Was she coming on to him?  Also what is a “best friend” anyway? Is that some sort of human romance term?

He was distracted by Roxy sighing and throwing a blanket over her head, “I’m still nervous.”

“If you go I’ll let you introduce me to your friends or datemates or wwhoevver,” Eridan countered.

Her head stuck out of the blanket, “Hmmm… that is tempting.”

Eridan stood up, “And I’ll be there with you so if Rose decides to hex you or something I’ll stop her.”

“Okay, okay, fine,” she sat up, “Just let me put on some killer lipstick first.”

~~~~~

Eridan didn’t realize that taking Roxy to talk to Rose would result in him sitting outside Rose’s house for so long.

They seemed awkward yet polite when Rose answered the door, and Eridan figured this was going to have to be some sort of private affair, but why did it take so long? Can’t they just apologize in a few sentences and be happy? _Humans_.

At least while he was sitting on the front steps to her hive, he was in the shade. He decided this was as good as a time as any to try knitting a capelet when the sound of a clearing throat in front of Eridan made him jump.

“Fuck ED, no need to be tho jumpy,” Sollux put the hand not holding a bag on his hip.

Eridan was not nearly as prepared to be confronted and felt a little vertigo, but responded coolly, “Wwhat brings you wway the evverlovvin fuck out here in the middle of nowwhere?”

“Thorry that I found you’re little hiding thpot,” he rolled his eyes.

“I’m not hiding,” Eridan folded his arms.

“Honethly, that’th none of my buthineth, I have a delivery for you,” he held out the paper bag, “Apparently we didn’t thplit properly when we thopped being Erithol and I had thith for a thweep or tho.”

Eridan reached into the bag and pulled out his old scarf, gingerly opened it, and exclaimed, “Of fuckin course, it’s a slightly loose cable knit!”

“What?”

“Nevvermind it’s a knittin thing,” Eridan embarrassedly put his old scarf away, “Thanks for not burnin it or something Sol, it means a lot to me.”

“I knew you were back for a whole perigree, but you wouldn’t show your fathe tho I had no choithe,” Sollux shrugged, “I get it, we all went through shit and you needed thome time alone, but you thtill hid away and I kept wondering where you were.”

“You kneww the wwhole time?!?” he exclaimed.

“I think I wath at the alchemiters with TZ or thomething and I thaw you run away like a bitch.”

“Wwoww okay fuck you Sol.”

“I’m kidding, sheesh,” Sollux shrugged, “It wath a very brave, dauntleth way of running away, happy?”

“Are you building up to something or are you just standing here to make fun a me?” Eridan raised an eyebrow.

“What I’m trying to thay ith,” he paused, “No one hateth you or anything. Not me, not KK, not even FF.  Sure you were a total pieth of shit for a long time, but no one careth anymore.”

If anyone else had told him this, Eridan would’nt have believed them, but it was Sollux fucking Captor telling him.

“I’m not thaying to expect a parade in your honor, jutht don’t think we’re going to cull you,” Sollux turned around and raised a hand casually goodbye, “Now get out more, you look like a drowned mouthbeatht.”

That could’ve gone worse, Eridan reasoned with himself. Though honestly, he would be way more uncomfortable if Sollux was _nice_ to him. He took off his new scarf to try on the old one, and it smelled faintly familiar. If it wasn’t for this dumb thing, he would’ve never picked up knitting, never met Jake, or become whatever he was with Roxy.

Speaking of Roxy-

The door opened and the two Lalondes hugged at the doorway. Eridan swore he saw Rose subtly wipe her eyes as she said, “Eridan, you stayed outside the whole time? I apologize for making you wait for so long.”

Eridan shrugged, then replied, “So are we going back to having knitting lessons?”

“Eri has a one track mind, doesn’t he?” Roxy snickered and gave Rose a knowing look, “Sounds good to me.”

“It’s too solitary to knit by myself now, honestly,” Rose smiled wryly, “I’ve gotten too accustomed to our inane but engaging conversations.”

After they said their goodbyes, Roxy insisted to walk Eridan back to his hive because of all he did for her already.

“I’m guessing you and Rose aren’t going to throww any hissy fits at each other,” Eridan said after a whole minute.

“Yeah, we talked,” Roxy sighed but smiled, “Guess we have a lot to catch up on, but it was good.”

“It’s almost like communication leads to healthy relationships,” he rolled his eyes.

Roxy burst into laughter and punched the troll, “Eri shut the hell up, you are the _last_ person who should be talking.”

“Wwhat, I thought you liked my ‘emotional support’,” Eridan air-quoted.

“Speaking of,” Roxy turned to look forward, “So, remember how Karkat and I were talking about something he didn’t want you to hear?”

“Sure,” Eridan tried to hide the smugness he felt. That’s what he gets for talking about Eridan behind his back.

“Yeah, so um…” she began fidgeting with her fingers, “He was talking about troll society or whatever and he said there was this thing you guys do that’s like super mega best friend romance? The diamond one?”

Eridan felt his throat dry, “So moirallegiance?”

“Yeah that one!” Roxy exclaimed, “So are we that?”

He almost stopped in his tracks, but repeated numbly, “You mean are wwe moirails?”

“Ohh, that’s the word for it!” she chuckled, “Yeah, so moirails.”

They were slowly approaching the tin cylinder that Eridan lived in, but Eridan panicked as he tried to think of a response. Were they moirails? Kinda? As much as he had a palecrush on Roxy, the gnawing fear of being in a relationship settled ice-cold in his chest, and he remembered what happened to all of his relationships. Relationships ruin him, Eridan remembered, and he didn’t want to become the needy, arrogant handful he was to everyone.  But was he different now? Well definitely, but different enough?

“It’s okay if you don’t want to, that’s fine!” she reassured, and Eridan realized he had been silent for too long.

“No,it’s not that I don’t,” he clenched his fist, “I just… I’m a bad moirail Rox, you don’t wwant someone like me.”

“But I’m asking you, so I do want someone like you,” she insisted.

“This could go so wrong in so many wways,” he returned, “I could ruin it like my last moirallegiance, or maybe humans aren’t cut out for troll romance like Kar said, or maybe you’ll find someone better than me, and then wwe’ll break up and the person I care the most about on this planet will hate me.”

“Okay, maybe we can do a test run moiral-thing,” Roxy grabbed Eridan’s hand as they stopped in front of his house, “It’ll be super chill and if either of us feel like we need to call it off, we will and with no hard feelings, we’ll be back to best friends.”

“I- I don’t see wwhy not,” he reasoned.

Roxy cheered and squeezed Eridan tightly, “So does that mean I can call you my moirail?!?”

“Yeah of course,” Eridan grinned despite himself.

Roxy gasped then exclaimed, “Now I _have_ to introduce you to Janey and Callie and Dirk! Trust me, they’re going to love you!”

“Oh yeah, I promised,” he frowned, but then pushed it out of his mind. Tomorrow they were going to Rose’s to knit and bicker, and he could hardly wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we have it folks, the last chapter of Closeknit!
> 
> This is begging for a sequel, so it's definitely in the works. Since I went with knitting terms for the chapters for this one, I have no idea what I'm going to do for the next installment. Only time will tell!

**Author's Note:**

> Alright guys, so it's not so much my first fic and more like the first fanfic I've written in YEARS. I'm counting this one as my first one though, because the others were... let's say I thought I was really funny and I really wasn't. I will probably edit the chapters as I see fit because no, I don't have a beta or anything. Also, I'm very, very new to Ao3? I'm sure it shows.
> 
> Don't worry about me dropping this, though - I already had it planned out. Mostly. Which is why things like suggestions and comments are really nice!


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